The Convergence
BUILDING OUR LOCAL FOOD FUTURE ACROSS THE MARCHES
1st - 2nd October 2026
Each year, the Marches Real Food and Farming Convergence gathers people around a shared table—farmers and growers, bakers and butchers, organisers, researchers, and community members—each bringing their own experiences, challenges, and hopes for the future. Conversations begin over coffee, continue in workshops and fields, and carry on long after the day ends.
What started as a space for connection has, over time, become something deeper: a living network of relationships rooted in the landscapes of the Marches. Across hills, borders, and market towns, those connections have quietly strengthened—linking people who might not otherwise meet, and creating the conditions for collaboration to take hold. Ideas that once felt ambitious or out of reach begin to find traction here, shaped by shared knowledge and grounded in real places.
Stories are at the heart of the Convergence. Stories of farms adapting to changing climates. Of new growers finding land and community. Of local supply chains being rebuilt, step by step. Of communities reimagining how food is grown, shared, and valued. These stories are not told as finished successes, but as works in progress—honest, practical, and rooted in lived experience.
In 2025, that story continued to unfold. The Convergence offered its characteristic interactive space—alive with discussion, curiosity, and a sense of possibility. People came not only to listen, but to take part: to question, to challenge, and to imagine together. Workshops sparked new thinking, conversations uncovered common ground, and unexpected connections hinted at future collaborations.
Running through it all was a shared understanding: that building a better local food system is not the work of any one organisation or individual. It depends on relationships—on trust built over time, on partnerships that cross sectors and boundaries, and on a willingness to work collectively toward something larger than ourselves.
This is the enduring legacy of the Convergence. Not just an annual gathering, but an ongoing process—of weaving connections, nurturing ideas, and building the foundations of a food system that is resilient, locally rooted, and shaped by the people it serves. Across the Marches, that future is already beginning to take form, carried forward by the communities who continue to come together, year after year.
In 2026 the Convergence is coming to Powys! Based at NPTC Farm in Newtown this year promises to offer more of the brilliant conversations with a distinctive Powys flavour.
Expressions of Interest are open for panels and speaker sessions. Email chloe.masefield@cultivate.uk.com with your ideas.
